Rolling mill



Aug. '13, 1940.

K. ROSENBAUM ROLLING MILL Filed Jan. 12, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 m L 0 0 E 5 0 mR 0! m K ATTORNEY Aug. 13, 1 K. ROSENBAUM ROLLING MILL Filed Jan. 12, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NVENTOR KurfRosenbaum ATTORNEY g- 1940' K. ROSEN'BAUM 2,211,385

ROLLING MILL Filed Jan. 12, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig.3

INVENTOR Patented Aug. 13, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROLLING MILL Kurt Rosenba'um, Friedrich-Alfred-Hutte, Rheinhausen, Germany, assignor to Fried. Krupp, Grusonwerk, Aktien-Gesellschaft,' Magdeburg,

Buckau, Germany Application January 12, 1938, Serial No. 184,623 In Germany January 21, 1937 .ZClaims.

The problems underlying this invention and the advantages obtained will be more fully understood by first critically reviewing some structural and working features of importance specific of continuous rolling mills known in the art and Widely used in various fields: namely the design and arrangement of the .various housings, wherein the Working rolls and their pinions are rotatably mounted for cooperation and the different Ways in which the necks of the forming or working rolls, their adjusting devices, couplings, coupling spindles and pinions are lubricated.

As a matter of fact in most rolling mills of the continuous type, the various sets of working rolls and their pinions are rotatably mounted in separate housings, adjustably fixed in spaced relation to each other on grooved bed plates 'or supporting rails, as seen for instance in United States Patents 939,169 and 1,804,111.

A widely known drawback inherent to rolling mills of this design consists in that the frequent removals and replacements of worn out rolls by redressed ones, the realignment of the latter, their re-connection with the couplings and coupling spindles and odd operations connected therewith including the re-mantling of the roll 35 housings, the supervision and re-adjustment of the cooling and lubricating means are cumbersome, time consuming tasks, entailing rather long interruptions of the work and greatly curtailing the output of the mill.

Another disadvantageous factor characteristic of many rolling mills and worthy of more attention on the part of mill operators is the relatively high consumption of lubricants for keeping the necks of the rolls, the coupling shafts, 45 couplings, pinions and other moving parts in good working order and preventing premature and ex.- cessive wear.

As a rule oil is used for lubricating the pinions and their journals; in more recent times it has 50 been proposed to flood also the necks of the working rolls with oil as seen for instance from United States Patent 2,018,055 to Dahlstrom.

However according to the results of studies and research work carried out by the inventor and his employers the old fashioned primitive method of lubricating the couplings and coupling spindles of rolling mills by means of non-liquid lubricants such as grease, tallow, fat, briquetted and mixed with pulverized graphite or the like has been retained up to the present.

The inventor attributes the conservative attitude of rolling mill designers and operators as regards lubricating the couplings and coupling spindles exclusively by non-liquid lubricants to the following facts and considerations: Because the coupling elements concerned are generally in a precarious condition, namely exposed and subject to besoiled by mill dust, scale, cinder etc., and because under those conditions liquid lubricants such as oil would be splashed about, a great deal of the oil would be dashed over the work under rolling treatment and would be lost.

In consequence of the primitive manner in which the coupling elements concerned are lubricated by non-liquid and non-circulating lubricants and because of the absence of a dependable film of lubricants at the contacting faces of the inner and outer members of said couplings rather wide clearance spaces must be provided therebetween,entailing constant shocks and other irregularities in the transmission of power from. the pinions to the working rolls and shortening the life of the coupling elements concerned.

The invention aims at overcoming the hereiniore outlined drawbacks inherent to rolling mills of known design by providing improved and relatively simple means for lubricating positively and in a centralized, dependable manner of circulation all the vital revolving parts of the rolling mill combined, including the said couplings and coupling spindles, namely by keeping them all oil flooded.

' In connection therewith the invention aims at so combining and uniting structurally the conventional housings of rolling mills used heretofore, that the lubricating oil in circulation generally as proposed, is safeguarded against being contaminated by mill scale etc., also against being dashed over the work under rolling treatment and against being mixed with the water used for cooling the working rolls, the ultimate object being to greatly reduce the consumption of lubricants when compared with that of rolling mills of known design.

Other noteworthy features of the invention consist in that the relatively wide clearance spaces necessarily provided heretofore at the contacting faces of the couplings and coupling spindles of rolling mills can be substantially reduced, namely with the result that shocks in the transmission of power to the working rolls are prevented and that rolled work of greater accuracy as to its cross sectional shape can be produced and with smaller tolerances as to overand undersize than it was possible heretofore.

An equally important feature of the invention essentially connected with the provision of a redesigned housing structure consists in that the working rolls can be more quickly removed and exchanged by redressed ones than before, and with the result that the idle periods during which the mill is shut down are greatly reduced, and that the output of the mill is correspondingly enlarged.

Another still noteworthy feature of the invention consists in that the consumption of power required for working rolling mills having re-designed lubricating means and more closely fitting flexible couplings as proposed, is substantially reduced when compared with that of rolling mills of known design.

Further objects of the invention will become incidentally apparent to practitioners in this field as the-description proceeds:

The nature and scope of the invention are briefly outlined in the appended claims and will be more fully understood from the following specification taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a fragmentary plan of a rolling mill of the so-called continuous type re-deslgned accordingto this invention and shown by way of an example, partly in section made horizontally on line I-I in Fig. 2,

Fig. 2 is a cross section of the rolling mill shown in Fig. 1, taken vertically therethrough on line l1-II in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is another cross section of the rolling mill shown in Fig. 1 taken vertically on line IHIII in Fig. 1.

In the embodiment of the invention shown by way of an example in the drawings the rolling mill, re-designed with the objects in View outlined above, is of the so-called continuous type, namely composed of spaced sets of working rolls arranged parallel to each other, each set of rolls forming together with its housing, bed plate, feeding tables, driving gear, couplings, lubricating means and accessorial parts referred to hereinafter, a mill unit, of which two, designated A, A2, are shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

Said mill units A, A2 are symmetrically laid out and of substantially identical design throughout except-for obvious reasons--in the contour lines of the successive sets of working rolls arranged for cooperation and in kindred minor structural details.

According to this invention each of said mill units is provided with a bed plate having upright flanges 0, c2, c3, cl, 05 running therearound (Figs.

1, 2); two or more mill units are thus adapted to be assembled in juxtaposition and disassembled, namely by means of said flanges, c, 03 screw bolts 4 and nuts.

Additional flanges may be provided for the same purpose at the lower portion of the mill changeable, such as the working rolls and the stands, wherein the rolls are rotatably mountedare designated by the same reference numbers.

Each of the mill units A, A2 comprises:

(1) A set of working rolls 6, 6' formed preferably with tapering necks I, 1' and journalled in bearing blocks, 8, 9, 8', 9,

(2) U-shaped stands l0, 10' open at the top, wherein the said bearings are adjustably fitted and which are joined together by detachable bracing rods I2, l2, traverses or the like so as to form jointly with the rolls a self contained independent structure capable of being assembled and disassembled outside the rolling mill proper, and of being quickly placed into its working position in the mill and withdrawn therefrom as one piece briefly called roll-unit hereinafter,

(3) A mill housing 20 wherein said roll-unit is enclosed and tightly fixed in its working position by tightening keys I4, I4 having screws attached; the mill housing 20 is preferably formed with a hollow top portion subdivided by partition Walls H, 22 into chambers m, m, m" for the reception of lubricating oil and cooling water; the oil chambers m, m enclose screw spindles 24, 25 conveniently used as adjusting devices for the working rolls and lubricated by the oil circulating through said chambers and said bearing blocks 8, 8, 9, 9'; the latter are formed with oil distributing grooves 12, v and channels n, n and are in communication with the oil chambers m, m and with an oil storage basin formed in the mill bed by means of detachable supply and drain pipes 30, 3|, 32, 33, instead of which flexible hoses may be used to advantage.

Packing means such as spring pressed rings of felt or artificial rubber, indicated at r, r and bearing against the lateral faces of the roll barrels may be provided to advantage for sealing the bearings and excluding cooling water, scale, etc., therefrom.

Windows 20, m2 formed in the mill housing serve as passages for the rolled work, other windows designated w3, 104 in Fig. 2 allow of said roll-unit being axially withdrawn and restored into its working position, and an exit w5 may be provided at the bottom of the mill housing for the cooling water dripping from the working rolls to escape;

(4) A mill bed or base attached to or integral 'with the mill housing 20 and rearwardly projecting from the lower portion of the latter; said mill bed comprises an inclined bottom plate 40, upright flanges c, 02, c3, c4, c5 integral therewith referred to hereinbefore, and hollow box frames ll, 52 supporting the roll driving gear wheels or pinions 50, the latter are rotated by cog wheels 5|, 5|, driven by the main driving shaft '52, and are cooperatively connected with the working rolls 6, 6 by couplings 53, 53', 54, 54' and coupling spindles 55, 55;

(5) A force feed lubricating device for jointly flooding with oil said pinions, couplings and roll necks and comprising: a pump which is in communication with the oil tank formed on the bed plate 40 through suction pipe 6!, and with the oil chambers m, m in the mill housing through feed pipe 62, and oil distributing pipes 63, El, 64 leading to the pinions and couplings of the mill as seen in Fig. 1;

(6) A hood I0 detachably fixed at the upright flanges of the mill bed and closely fitting to the rear face of the mill housing 20 so as to wholly enclose the roll driving gears described, the couplings,coup1ing spindles,oil distributing pipes and accessorial parts to effectively exclude therefrom mill dust, scale, water, etc., and to avoid any contamination of the lubricating oil in circulation with foreign matter;

('7) Feed troughs 80, 8| and roll tables 82, 82, over which the rolled work passes, and which are cooperatively associated with the rolls 6, 6 in a conventional manner; said roll tables are slidably mounted on guide rails 83', 83', 84, 84' and capable of being displaced by means of screw spindles 85, 85 cooperatively associated with an electric motor 86 by rotary shafts 81, 81', 88 and sets of gear wheels diagrammatically shown at 89, 90, 90.

Various changes and modifications may be conveniently made in the structural details of rolling mills of the improved design shown and described, without departing from the spirit and the salient ideas of this invention.

Instead of the usual crude and unelastic wobbler couplings 53, 54 wherein generally about A" clearance space must be provided between the contacting faces of the coupling box and the spindle, flexible and highly elastic couplings such as disclosed in British Patent 474,303 may be provided to advantage.

What I claim is:

1. In a multiple rolling mill of the type having sets of working rolls spaced from each other in the rolling direction, a plurality of self contained individual rolling mills assembled side by side, each of which comprising horizontally disposed working rolls superposed upon each other, means including gear wheels and coupling spindles for individually driving said rolls, and an integer mill housing and bed structure for jointly supporting said .rolls and driving means, said individual rolling mills being of substantially identical design and symmetric lay-out with respect to a vertical plane of symmetry longitudinally intersecting the axes of the working rolls and of their driving means, the rear portion of said individual mill bed structures supporting the roll driving means being formed with upwardly extending flanges running therearound and terminating at the roll housing proper, and being provided with a hood attached to said flanges and the roll housing and forming a separate I chamber enclosing the roll driving means.

, section the axes of the. working rolls and of their driving means, the rear portion of said individual roll housing and bed structures supporting the roll driving means being formed with upwardly extending flanges running therearound and with an inclined bottom for the reception of lubricating oil dripping from said roll driving means.

' KURT ROSENBAUM. 

